Mark Anthony Philippoussis (Μαρκ
Φιλιππούσης)(born 7 November 1976) is an Australian tennis player. He turned
professional in 1994. His father is Greek, while his mother is of
Italian ancestry but speaks Greek.[2]

Biography

Early
career

Coached by his father, Nick, the right-hander has played tennis
since he was six years of age. He was briefly coached by former
1987 Wimbledon champion Pat
Cash, which ended in an acrimonious split in 2000.[4] In
1994, he finished third in single ranking for juniors.
Philippoussis also finished as junior doubles champion with Ben
Ellwood in Australia, Wimbledon, and Italy. He turned professional
in 1994.

In 1995, at the age of 19, he was the youngest player in the
year-end top 50. In 1996, he reached the 4th round of the Australian Open
upsetting Pete
Sampras in the 3rd round and in doubles with Patrick Rafter. On 25 May 1997, he
recorded a personal best 229.0 km/h (142.3 mph) serve in a
game he lost to Albert
Costa. During the height of his career, Mark was known as
having one of the fastest services in the game.

On 29 March 1999, Philippoussis entered the top 10 for the first
time and stayed there for 10 weeks. He advanced to the
quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 1999 for the
second straight year, where he retired in the second set against
Sampras after having won the first set. During that match,
Philippoussis suffered a moderate cartilage tear in his left knee and underwent
arthroscopic surgery four days later. Sampras later remarked that
he "dodged a bullet out there". Philippoussis returned to
professional tennis seven weeks later at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships and lost
his second round match after receiving a bye in the first round. He
did not play again until October in Singapore, where he lost in the second round.
He finished 1999 at No. 19.

2000 was the fourth consecutive year in which Philippoussis
finished in the top 20, at World No. 11. He reached the fourth
round at the Australian Open, losing to eventual champion Andre Agassi. He
defeated Sampras, then the World No. 2, 8–6 in the fifth set at the
French Open in a
first round match but lost in the fourth round to Juan Carlos
Ferrero. For the third consecutive year, he made it to the
quarterfinals at Wimbledon, losing again to Agassi. He appeared in
his second Olympic
Games in Sydney, losing in
the third round to eventual gold medalist Yevgeny
Kafelnikov.

Philippoussis finished 2002 in the top 100 (seventh time in
eight years), despite not winning a title. He moved from Miami to the San Diego, California area in September
2002.

Davis Cup

Philippoussis has always claimed to be proud of representing his
country in Davis Cup,
but personal differences with John Newcombe and Tony Roche interfered with his commitment
early in his career. Despite several highly publicised feuds, Mark
played a large part in giving Australia their 27th Davis Cup
triumph - second only to the United States with 31 - but it was
their first since 1986. In 1999 he defeated Cedric Pioline, 6–3, 5–7, 6–1, 6–2 in Nice,
France.

Injuries plagued Mark's availability for Davis cup and was the
cause of a public rift between team-mates Patrick Rafter and Lleyton Hewitt.
Rafter publicly accused Philippoussis of 'jerking' the team around
after he withdrew from a Davis Cup tie in late 2000. Philippoussis
said Rafter was 'ill-informed' and upset by the lack of support and
understanding from his team-mates.

Knee surgeries forced Philippoussis out of Davis Cup until
February 2003. By then Pat Rafter had retired, and John Fitzgerald
and Wally Masur were the new Davis Cup captain and coach. The
impact of these changes was instantly recognised as team harmony
was at its highest throughout the year. Philippoussis once again
sealed victory for Australia in the Melbourne Final against Spain.
Mark beat Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero in a 7–5 6–3
1–6 2–6 6–0 battle. Mark suffered a pectoral tear at the end of the
second set which caused him to lose the third and fourth sets. He
regrouped in the fifth set and trounced Ferrero 6–0.

2003
comeback

After three knee operations and a protracted comeback,
Philippoussis avowed a new seriousness to his sport. He made
himself available regularly for Davis Cup, hired a new physical
trainer, and took up surfing
as his new recreation. It seemed to work, as he made the 2003
Wimbledon final, finally losing to Roger Federer 6–7(5/7), 2–6, 6–7(3/7)
[5].

During a 2003 Wimbledon tennis match against Andre Agassi (6–3,
2–6, 6–7 (4–7), 6–3, 6–4), he set a new Australian tennis record of
46 aces served in a match, three aces short of the overall ATP Tour
record then held by Richard Krajicek.

Philippoussis broke a two year singles title drought by winning
the Shanghai Open in 2003. On 30 November 2003, he defeated Juan Carlos
Ferrero of Spain to win the fourth match of the Davis Cup final
in Melbourne, securing the title for Australia.

The honeymoon period with the Australian public, however, did
not last. 2004 proved a disastrous year in terms of his tennis
career and public profile. After shouldering most of the blame for
losing Australia's Davis Cup tie with Sweden with an unexpected
below par performance, Philippoussis struggled through to the
Wimbledon fourth round in June 2004. From Wimbledon in June until
the end of the season in October, he failed to win a single ATP
tennis match and finished with one of his lowest ever rankings
since turning professional in 1994.

In October 2004, a much publicized affair with Delta Goodrem had
soured and seriously damaged his standing after newspapers alleged
that he had dated Paris Hilton while with Goodrem. In March
2005, he became engaged to actress and model Alexis Barbara. The Age reported the pair
had split in July 2006, but Philippoussis has denied this to
Australian tabloid New Idea; they did split some time
before he began filming Age of Love.

He confirmed to Sydney's Daily Telegraph on 23 August
2006, that he "parted ways with" his father as his coach and
rehired Peter
McNamara in an attempt to revive his career.[6]

2006
return

At the 2006 Australian Open

After some controversy over his wildcard selection firstly after
a disappointing 2006 Australian Open, Philippoussis made more
headlines when he again earned entry into the 2006 Wimbledon. He
was defeated in the 2nd round.

Leading into the Campbell's Hall of Fame Championships as a
wildcard, his record was a modest 6–7. He had a fantastic run in
the tournament, getting all the way to the final, where he defeated
Justin
Gimelstob in straight sets to claim his first title in almost
three years.

Philippoussis, currently ranked No. 114, lost to Rafael Nadal as a
wildcard entry in the 1st round of the 2006 US Open. The Australian
Davis Cup team lost against Argentina in an unpredictable 5–0. On
22 September Philippoussis was defeated by David Nalbandian 6–4 6–3
6–3, in the first match of the series.

Philippoussis has played in a series of Challenger tournaments
since the Davis Cup semifinals. Philippoussis won the Calabasas
tournament, defeating Amer
Delic 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–4), 6–3 in the final.

2007-2008

Philippoussis beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6–4 7–6 at the 2007 Hopman
Cup. However, during his second match against Jerome Haehnel, he was forced to retire
after hyperextending his knee.[7] An MRI showed that he
had torn cartilage in his knee, forcing him to miss the Australian
Open.

Philippoussis acquired a protected ranking of 119 in the world
and is allowed to use that ranking for entry into eight
tournaments. Tennis Australia, not being happy with
his lack of match play and unwillingness to play the Australian
Open wildcard playoff, told him that he
will not be given any special treatment and will have to earn his
wildcard. This forced him to use one of his protected ranking
tournament entries.

In his first match of the Australian Open Wildcard playoff, the
Scud was drawn against reigning Australian Open juniors champion Brydan Klein and had
a fiery contest. After a remark from Klein, Philippoussis was
quoted as saying, "You say that to me again and you're in
trouble; you're not playing juniors anymore" and came out the
victor in straight sets 6–3 7–5 and thus began his comeback in good
form. Philippoussis then lost his second match back to Samuel Groth 6–4 6–3,
but due to other players' injuries, the Scud advanced to the
quarterfinals where he was to play Rameez Junaid. However, due to another
knee injury requiring surgery, Philippoussis was unable to
play.

In February 2008, media attention again turned to
Philippoussis's love life, as reports surfaced that he had begun
dating Siobhan
Parekh, a Sydney-based
model who won FHM's Girl
Next Door competition two years ago. After bouncing out of his
reality TV relationship with Age of Love winner Amanda
Salinas in late 2007, Philippoussis reportedly started dating
Parekh in January 2008.[8]

Age of
Love

Philippoussis starred as the bachelor in the reality television
dating show Age of Love on the NBCtelevision network, in June 2007.
The show centred around women in or near their 40s and women in
their 20s competing for his affection. At first the 6'5"
heart-throb was shocked at the ages of the "Cougars" as the older
women were called. The "Kittens", the younger women, seemed to be
very cocky when they heard they were going against the older women.
The final dates occurred in his hometown of Melbourne, Australia,
including a date at Moonlit
Sanctuary. In the end, Mark chose Amanda Salinas (the 25-year
old Nashville Predators dancer) because it "wouldn't work out" with
Jen, the 48-year old assistant to Jerry Buss.

2009

Philippoussis declared that all his money was gone and that he
will lose his home of residence. In a writ lodged with the Supreme
Court on May 15, it is alleged Philippoussis took out a loan
through his company Mergis Pty Ltd which he personally guaranteed.
The writ claims Mergis - of which Philippoussis is the sole
director, secretary and shareholder - defaulted less than a year
later. The lender is seeking $1,313,351.96, plus interest, costs
and possession of the house, or is threatening to go to trial. The
Perpetual Trustee Company Ltd is listed in court documents as the
plaintiff, but a company spokesman said her firm had provided funds
to another company which was the one foreclosing. The other company
is not detailed on the writ, but Philippoussis said it was Pepper
Home Loans - a company that provides loans through mortgage
brokers. Once ranked as the eighth best male player in the world,
Philippoussis took out a mortgage in February, 2008. Philippoussis
said he was three months behind, adding that each monthly payment
was more than $10,000. "I haven't played tennis since 2006, and
tennis is one of those sports where if you don't play, you don't
get paid," he said. "Paying bills and no money coming in has been
tough for a number of years, but everyone has to go through that."
Philippoussis was seen purchasing several lottery tickets for a
recent 106 million dollar jackpot, but is not believed to have won.
Philippoussis was recently seen with Melbourne hairdresser
Chantelle Theos, but he has said that he is single and spending
time with his mother. [9]